Paring down collections can better serve others

I keep boxes. I have been doing it as long as I can remember. I had a fascination with all sorts of tiny things as a child, and I found it delightful to put tiny things in tiny boxes. It started getting out of hand when I was given one of those little collectible enamel boxes from England.

It was just so … precious. My most exquisite acquisition has been a heavily bejeweled turtle-shaped box I purchased in Las Vegas with some of my husband’s winnings at the blackjack table. When I showed him that the shell lifted off to reveal inner storage, he was not nearly as impressed as I hoped he would be.

My box collection has grown so much that I actually have a box closet with boxes inside boxes. There are lots of boxes in our garage stacked up … you just never know, after all! It is tremendously rewarding to me when someone needs a certain size box, and I alone can produce it. That somehow gives dignity to all my boxes as they await their time to serve us.

Boxes were also important to my mother in the days before storage bins. She would find a box that would perfectly fit into a drawer or space and arrange smaller boxes inside the big one like puzzle pieces. Labeled boxes would line her closet shelves, and some even had holes cut in the ends to serve as handles.

When Mom’s inevitable move to assisted living was upon us, my sister committed the unpardonable sin by throwing out one of Mom’s boxes that was maximizing the space in her refrigerator. Mom has forgotten the incident now, but I’m not sure she ever forgave my sister. She even wrote down the exact dimensions of that box and sent my sister on a city-wide hunt for a replacement.

My husband collects rubber bands. He keeps a plastic cup in the kitchen cabinet that overflows with them. I admit it is quite handy to reach in the cabinet and get just the size and color I need. His favorites are very large rubber bands that will go around the top of a garbage can to hold the plastic liner in place. And I feel compelled to save the fat blue ones that hold stems of asparagus together. You just never know when you will need one precisely like what you have saved.

Our son, who is quite the cook, collects spices and sauces, and every time his family comes to visit, he runs to the store to buy more without even counting how many shakers of Tony’s cajun seasonings or jugs of soy sauce we still have from his last visit. When they built their home, he designed the kitchen in such a way that he could stand at his stove and only take one step to have access to all his spices and sauces!

It’s challenging to narrow down specific things our daughter has collected through the years because, like other creative types, she saves virtually everything for a possible future use.That’s why it caught my attention when she read the book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo and was inspired to get rid of 26 huge bags of stuff she had collected.

After reading the book myself, I cut my wardrobe down by 50 percent, shared copies of the book with other women, and together we are donating thousands of very nice items from our extensive wardrobes for an upscale resale event.

Come see the items today and Saturday, April 6 and 7, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 3601 Taft. All profits of the fashion sale will go to the women at Faith Refuge. Boutique items will be from Wal-Mart to Neiman Marcus with prices ranging from $2 bracelets to $1,000 full-length furs.

This is a great opportunity for us to tidy up, and by parting with what we have kept, we will bless our sisters at Faith Refuge, a win-win situation for everyone!

A few days ago, two very big boxes were delivered to my home containing two smaller boxes with appliances I had ordered. I was just as excited about those big boxes as I was about the appliances. T

hey will be perfect to hold all the designer handbags we will be taking to the sale. It just doesn’t get much better than that!

Johnelle Donnell, a founding force behind Faith Refuge, has been an editorial board member of the Times Record News.